Fan-yi laM

Comic Market: How the Worlds Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Djinshi Culture
Without a doubt, the worlds largest regular gathering of comic fans today is Tokyos biannual Comic Market (Komikku Maaketto or Komike in Japanese, Comike or Comiket in English). Over three days, more than a half million people attend this gigantic festival of self-produced comics, music, and computer games, inspired by popular manga and anime as well as other forms of popular culture. Attendees stroll along endless rows of tables filled with a mind-boggling amount of fan works for sale, among costumed characters from anime, manga, television shows, and filmsincluding, most recently, Harry Potter films. In addition to a sizable cosplay area, otaku can see and buy the newest toys, games, and fan art, as well as gather announcements from the hottest Japanese anime and game makers. Launched more than thirty years ago as a marketplace for selling and exchanging djinshi (literally like-minded publications), it has become the center of Japanese otakuin other words, fan culture. About seven hundred participants and thirty-two exhibitors attended the first Comike in 1975; the seventy-sixth installment in August 2009 boasted a new record of approximately 560,000 participants and 35,000 exhibitors. This essay examines how the Comike has changed in response to the rising popularity of the djinshi phenomenon and in particular what the emerging

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innovations of the Comike might mean for the future of the djinshi culture. Although the djinshi phenomenon did not start with Comic Market, Comike and djinshi are inextricably linked, having shaped each others history for three decades. A short sketch of the development of djinshi culture in Japan, from its beginnings through to the establishment of Comic Market, will reveal that the Comike convention has shaped the most important trends defining the development of djinshi in Japan today (Figure 1).

beFoRe coMic MaRket

Literary djin zasshi (like-minded magazines) first appeared during the Meiji period (18681912). These publications by literary circles contributed to the development of prewar Japanese literature and continue to play a significant role in the Japanese literary world today. Djinshi are an outgrowth of this practice, but the term can also refer to similar manga-related, fan-produced publications such as fanzines. Generally speaking, djinshi are amateur publications, written, illustrated, designed, published, and marketed by fans, usually employing manga-style art and semiotics.

figure 1. The seventy-first Comic Market, December 29, 2006. One of the big east halls of the exhibition center, which is a little less than one-third of the available exhibition space for djinshi at the Comic Market (excluding company booths, cosplay area, and conference rooms). Photograph by author.

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Crucially, and from the beginning, Comike attracted visitors who were not just circle or club members, and who did not necessarily themselves produce fanworks.

Probably the first manga djinshi published in Japan was the Tokyo Mangakais (Manga Society) experimental club publication Tobae in 1916.1 Manga djinshi in the Taish period (191226) were mostly the club bulletins of manga circles, fan groups that included both professional and semiprofessional artists. After the war, story manga and later gekiga (Japanese comics aimed at adults, popular in the 60s and 70s) became very popular, and many more amateur manga groups were established. Though these groups members were mere manga fans, all were aiming to become professional artists.2 These groups members exchanged information about drawing techniques, since artistic techniques during this period were largely unknown to the public and drawing materials were almost nonexistent.3 But the biggest obstacle for the djinshi circles was a lack of affordable printing methods. Thus most djinshi were hand drawn rather than printed; these manuscripts were then circulated between club members, who, if necessary, split printing costs among themselves. Notable djinshi from this period include Ishinomori Shtars Bokuju itteki (195357, One drop of ink) and the groundbreaking Showa 24 shjo manga artists Mahtsukai (197073, Sorcerer). In Tezuka Osamus manga art magazine COM (196672), djinshi circles briefly found a central place to come into contact with each other and to recruit new members.4 COM encouraged all circles to publish their djinshi and to exchange them with other circles and with fans in general. When the magazine folded due to low sales, its legacy as a focal point of djinshi culture was taken up by a new institution: the djinshi convention.

biRth oF a dOjinShi MaRket

When the Comic Market was first held, it was one among many well-known djinshi conventions such as Manga Communication or Nihon Manga Taikai (Japan Manga Convention), at which all kinds of groups producing mangaand anime-related fanworks could physically gather together in order to share, buy, and sell djinshi. Djinshi circles, anime fan societies and science fiction school clubs sat side-by-side exchanging djinshi and fanzines.5 But no fan scene is immune to controversies and imbroglios, and the Japanese djinshi scene was no exception. In 1975, a woman who had made critical remarks about the Manga Taikai was excluded from that convention, and

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subsequently a firestorm of anger among fans produced a movement against the Manga Taikai led by the famous circle Meiky (Labyrinth), which resulted in the conception of a new alternative convention. On December 21, 1975, the first Comic Marketa fan event from fans for fanswas held in Tokyo.6 Comikes underlying vision was of an open and unrestricted djinshi fair, offering a marketplace without limitations on content or access. At the time, manga and anime fandom was organized around formal circles (particularly the school clubs that charged membership fees and produced regular group publications), and conventions were gathering places for the groupsrather than that of individual fans. Crucially, and from the beginning, Comike attracted visitors who were not just circle or club members, and who did not necessarily themselves produce fanworks. This innovation created its now massive popularity in Japan and increasingly, with international fans as well. Comike was soon held three times a year, attracting ever-increasing numbers of groups and fans.7 With the advent of these fan-consumers (as opposed to fan-creators), djinshi became demand-driven publications. Greater competition gradually fostered rising standards of quality, which in turn attracted more circles and buyers. Higher sales shrank production costs and boosted profits, which could then be reinvested in the djinshi themselves. Small printing companies, many of which had begun in the minikomi (microcommunication) boom of the early 1970s, were able to use the profits derived from greater demand for their services to modernize their equipment, lowering production costs further and enabling them to construct their production schedules around each Comike.8 Additionally, lower printing costs freed smaller groups from the dependence on bigger groups, which often had strict rules on content and style to avoid conflict among their many members. Having lost their raison dtre, these big clubs and circles gradually faded away, leaving djinshi creators to produce stories they liked, in the manner they liked.9

aniPaRo booM
Despite low broadcast ratings, the 1974 anime Uch senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato) became something of a cult hit among the new generation of fans who had grown up in relative postwar prosperity, and the aniparo djinshi derived from the movie version was a huge hit at the fifth Comike, in the spring of 1977. By the time Yamatos popularity faded, these proto-otaku had moved on to other anime such as Mobile Suit Gundam (197980, Kid senshi

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gandamu) and Rokushin gattai goddo Maasu (198182, Six-god union god Mars). As might be deduced from their name, aniparo parodied popular anime series, and in doing so, attracted a new type of fan to Comike, beyond its core group of 2000 or so attendees. These were female fans, mostly middle and high school students strongly influenced by the 1970s florescence of shjo manga. They began to create and consume djinshi in which the (bishnen or pretty boy) male protagonists of popular anime and manga were transposed into a very particular sort of erotic story typified by the phrase: without tension (yama nashi), without punchline (ochi nashi), and without meaning (imi nashi)and hence the contemporary genre title, yaoi.10 Aniparo soon became the most popular djinshi genre at the Comic Market, fuelled by the disappearance of big fan circles and the appearance of professional anime magazines. Since their debut in the late 1970s, these publications had gradually rendered fanzines obsolete by poaching their customers and talent. Those fanzine creators who remained nonprofessional largely switched to aniparo or to the newest popular djinshi genre, lolicon.11

lolicon booM
The eleventh Comic Market in spring 1979 saw the popularity of the cute and pure bishjo or pretty girl (strongly influenced by 1970s shjo manga) skyrocket among mens djinshi circles, attracting many new male participants. Unlike the female yaoi fans who would one day christen themselves fujoshi (literally rotten women), these male lolicon (an abbreviation of the Japanese transliteration of Lolita complex) fans had no popular anime series to adore, since at the time sexually desirable cute girls were rare in anime.12 Lolicon fans idolized minor characters from popular anime such as Clarisse dCagliostro of Miyazaki Hayaos Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro (1979, Lupin III: Cagliostro no shiro) or cute female protagonists from shjo anime like Minky Momo, the eponymous heroine of Mah no princess Minkii Momo (198283, Magical princess Minky Momo). The Comic Market was dominated by women from the beginning (90 percent of its first participants were female), but in 1981, thanks to lolicon, male participants numbered the same as female participants for the first time in Comikes history.13 With almost ten thousand participants, Comic Market was now Japans biggest djinshi event and the center of djinshi culture. It grew big enough that the nineteenth Comic Market, in the winter of 1981, was held in the International Exhibition Center in Harumi. A year later, a

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convention catalogue was sold for the first time, both to help visitors to find their favorite circles in the crowd of almost a thousand circles and to help finance Comic Markets expansion. Comike also encouraged the many fanrelated companies to include advertisements in the catalog.14 Internal conflicts on the Comike planning committee underlay some of these developments: they marked the ascendancy of the faction led by Yonezawa Yoshihiro, who favored Comikes unlimited expansion.15 Though he was criticized for purportedly selling djinshi out to commercialism, Yonezawa couched his plans for Comike in terms of a collective organization of the convention by all participants, including staff, circles, and visitors.16 Whatever the underlying reality, these public principles remain little changed today.17 The early 1980s were a perilous time for djinshi and anime fandom. The first generation of Comike participants were now employed and in many cases raising children, greatly limiting their time to participate in fandom and djinshi activities. At the same time, the expanding animanga industry had discovered the hardcore fans who would soon be dubbed otaku, targeting them with new products that were often produced by former djinshi creators. In addition, the hyperinflation of real estate prices that caused and was engendered by the Bubble economy, raised exhibition halls rental rates precipitously. Faced with this loss of identity, talent, and space, every other large fan convention except Comike dissolved.

yaoi booM
But in the middle of the decade, one manga and its anime not only saved djinshi fandom from near extinction but was responsible for its biggest boom yet. Takahashi Yichis Captain Tsubasa (198188, Kyaputen tsubasa), about boys competing in the then-exotic sport of soccer, felt like a mixture of shnen and shjo manga in its depiction of both competition and friendship between boys (in contrast to the gekiga-esque martial arts manga that had formerly dominated the sports genre).18 From 1986, bishnen soccer stars homoerotic and homosexual djinshi exploits stoked female fans and creators fantasies and shifted yaoi to the center of female otaku-ism, which today is known as fujoshi culture.19 Within a year, attendance at Comike nearly doubled (to approximately sixty thousand in winter 1987), and a majority of attendees were again women. Popular titles like Seint Seiya (198690) and the anime Ronin Warriors (198889, Yoroiden samurai trooper) held womens interest after Captain Tsubasa ended serialization.

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In contrast to the earlier aniparo phenomenon, the yaoi boom was dominated by young women just out of high school whounlike their counterparts in earlier decadesnow had everything they needed to create djinshi: manga drawing techniques and tools. Photocopiers had become common, and an entire rapid-printing industry had arisen, offering all-inclusive services from manuscript touchup to professional offset printing, to delivery direct to Comike for reasonable prices. New djinshi conventions appeared, and manga shops began selling djinshi on commission. Comparatively lush, custommade, oversized djinshi with more than one hundred pages became common, and popular circles could now live on their fanworks profits (Figure 2).20 Comike was now held over two days (one each for men and women), completely filling Japans biggest convention centers in Harumi and Makuhari. However, it was still plagued by issues such as a severe imbalance between the numbers of applicant circles and of exhibitors spots, as well as continued financial troubles brought on by the catalogs production costs.21 With the length of entrance queues in front of the convention halls exceeding two kilometers and even professional creators like Toriyama Akira of Dragonball fame participating, the djinshi world clearly had entered a bubble of its own a far cry from previous decades when professional artists saw djinshi as youthful peccadilloes.

figure 2. The seventy-first Comic Market, December 29, 2006. A typical shutter circle selling parody djinshi popular among females. Buyers have to stay in lines for minutes or even hours, and they are often sold out by noon. Photograph by author.

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antiManGa MoVeMent
When thirty-six-year old Miyazaki Tsutomu was arrested in July 1989 for the murder of four schoolgirls, the term otaku overnight became infamous and feared nationwide, implicating Comike, as the largest gathering place of that kind of person. The ensuing hysterical antimanga movement forced Comike out of Makuhari and subjected djinshi to some of the restrictions placed on pornographysuch as the removal or retouching of genitalia. Comike staff checked all djinshi for compliance to new rules prior to each event.22 Despite the self-censorship brought on by the mass medias criticism, Comike nevertheless continued to thrive. Young men tired of new, tighter restrictions on professional manga turned to Comike, and attendance once again swelled to 230,000 in the summer of 1990.23 Hardcore lolicon was now pass, and erotic djinshi for men had greatly changed. New genres were introduced with such aspects as fetishism and a new style of softcore eroticism enjoyed by men and women alike; in particular, yuri (lily), or lesbian stories, emerged.24 Djinshi also became smaller and shorter due to professional publishers recruiting talented djinshi creators en masse: the bulk of djinshi were the works of the less talented creators left behind.25

otaku ReVolution
After the exhaustion of the antimanga movement and the collapse of the Bubble economy, Comic Market was held biannually, with around 200,000 participants during each event (Figure 2). In 1996, the convention moved to the new International Exhibition Center in Odaiba, Japans biggest convention center. But after a new otaku boom engendered by the epochal anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (199596, Shinseiki evangerion) even the capacity of the new convention space was soon exhausted. As a result, the summer Comike was regularly held over three days from 1997.26 Other factors contributing to the increased interest in djinshi and in fanworks were the development of fixed otaku landmarks and the spread of computers. Almost everyone could now afford to make digital djinshi as well as audiovisual or even interactive djinshi (i.e. djin music and djin games). While self-produced figures (model kits), music, and games were not new, they had been possible only for a small group of people with specialized equipment and expertise.27 The personal technology revolution meant

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simplification of fanworks production processes as well as completely new possibilities for communication and new digital genres. With the growth of djinshi in other media, the term djin products (djin seihin) has gradually come into use to describe fanworks of all genres. Further, the conversion of Tokyos Akihabara Electric Town into a district full of shops selling otaku-related goods, as well as the nationwide expansion of otaku-goods retailers and the establishment of Internet communities and message boards in the late 1990s, enabled otaku to live out their interests and The personal technology to communicate nonstop with like-minded revolution meant people everywhere. Their interests and culsimplification of fanworks ture were easily shared, and consequently production processes as information on Comic Market and djin well as completely new culture spread around the world. possibilities for The rise of the Internet also meant communication and new that Comike lost its monopoly as the cendigital genres. ter of otaku and djinshi culture. Nevertheless, Comike remained the most important event for Japanese fans, especially after companies with otaku-related products started to exploit it.28 Firms had been interested in Comic Market for decades as a never-ending pool of promising new talent and as a place to exploit them commercially, and they were willing to pay much money for direct access to these masses of otaku.29 Starting with NEC in the summer of 1995, companies were granted exhibition space to market or to sell their newest products. This was the birth of the dealer booth at Comike, and, as with djinshi circles, the number of applicant companies was much higher than that of available spaces: a self-sustaining event with such high attendance was too important for any related company to ignore.30 Companies accepted the existence of unlicensed parody djinshi using copyrighted material (albeit in a transformative and thus arguably fair-use manner) since they could now sell exclusive goods at Comike (Figure 3) or use it as a marketing place, attracting to the convention people who were not interested in djinshi.

dOjin StaRS
Since the 1980s, it has become common for talented djinshi creators to be recruited by professional companies and become popular on the mass market. Many famous artists have had a past in the djinshi scene or are still involved.

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Artistsincluding Ozaki Minami (198991, Zetsuai) or CLAMP (20039, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle; 1992present, X: 1999)became famous in the djinshi world before conquering the professional market, and artists such as Koge-Donbo (19992003, Pitaten) and Hiroe Rei (2002present, Black La goon) are still very active, regularly selling djinshi at fairs. Djinshi like Masamune Shirows Black Magic (1983) or Minekura Kazuyas Saiyuki (19972002) were directly converted into popular professional works. Professional artists selling djin products on the side (Figure 4) have been a common practice for a long time. In the summer of 2004, 5 percent of all circles participating in Comike were headed by a professional mangaka or illustrator, while another 10 percent had some professional experience.31 Similarly, it is common for erotic game producers to allow their underpaid artists to sell their drafts and sketches as djinshi, giving the artists a second wage and the company free promotion.32 After the growth of cross-linked otaku markets, the developments and innovations of personal technologies and the now-giant djinshi market; the stage was set for a djin work to conquer the professional markets. The djin product that became the first megahit in the djin scene (with many parody djinshi of its own), and received a professional manga and anime adaptation

figure 3. The seventy-first Comic Market, December 29, 2006, at 10:30am, thirty minutes after the official opening of the Comic Market. Although waiting and freezing in line since 8am, it was not possible to enter the exhibition halls until 10:45am due to huge masses of visitors. Photograph by author.

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figure 4. The sixty-sixth Comic Market, August 13, 2004. The booth of the biggest djinshi goods retailer Toranoana at the company area. The booth was selling exclusive goods only available at the Comic Market. Photograph by author.

(including multimedia merchandising), was the djin game Tsukihime (Moon princess), created in 2000 by djin circle Type-Moon. This erotic adventure game had professional-quality visuals and narrative, and Type-Moon actively merchandized it by selling bonus disks and other products at djinshi fairs and in djinshi shops. The circle also created joint projects with other popular circles, producing popular spinoff games and fan books. Backed by a strong fan base, Type-Moon set up a company named Notes in 2003, and became a successful computer game production firm. Two other djin games, Higurashi no naku koro ni (20026, When they cry) by the circle 07th Expansion and Th Project (1996present, Orient project) by the Shanghai Alice Gengakudan circle, later became commercial hits of a similar or even surpassing scale. However, this phenomenon is not some kind of amateur revolution. Type-Moons Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi and 07th Expansions Rykishi07 had already made steps into the professional industry before becoming famous in the djinshi scene. Much like Shinkai Makotothe fan-creator of the OVA Voices of a Distant Star (2002, Hoshi no koe)these creators already had made a career in the professional industry and were adored by fans for their passion and talents, rather than for their amateur status.33

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While Tsukihime stood out in the very small djin game scene of its time (the game is said to have sold more than 65,000 copies) due to its quality, in 2004, Higurashi became famous through a free test version and consequently the djin game series nine installments sold about 500,000 copies.34 Despite being active since 1996, Th Project became widely known only about ten years later, not so much through the game itself as through its music and characters, which became popular objects of jokes and memes in Internet communities. Despite its relative newness, Higurashi became one of Japans biggest media phenomena, and at the seventy-sixth Comic Market in summer 2009, Th Project became the first djin title ever to receive the honor of being considered its own genre.35

coMike today
Upon the appearance of Web 2.0 sites like YouTube or DeviantART (and especially their explicitly Japanese counterparts NicoNico Dga and Pixiv) one might think that Comic Market as a physical and costly event would suffer from losing its monopoly on being the center of Japanese fan art. But once again Comike was the beneficiary of a new fan praxis: attendance reached new heights in 2007 (well over 500,000 people), a year without any outstandingly popular property to attract new visitors. It seems that djinshi circles are not switching entirely to the Internet but rather are using it as an informational and marketing platform for themselves and their creations, spreading the knowledge of and fascination with Comic Market to new spheres. The best example of this phenomenon is the already-mentioned Th Project, which became popular mostly through Web 2.0 outlets. Having been the center of Japanese manga fandom for more than thirty years, Comic Market appears stronger than ever. Through time and the development of new genres and new technologies, it has grown from a small fan event to a mass happening, from a djinshi fair to a multimedia market. The 2009 summer event had the highest participant numbers ever, approximately 560,000. With high attendance, positive media attention, and industry support, Comikes position seems invulnerable. Even the deaths of important figures such as Iwata Tsuguo in 2004 and Yonezawa Yoshihirowho was the face of Comike for decadesin 2006 did not harm its position. But unresolved problems, such as the use of copyrighted material in parody djinshi and the child pornography questions inherent in lolicon and shotakon, remain.36 Though these are not Comic Marketspecific problems, as the obvious center

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it is undeniable that Comike possesses the power and the means to influence social, market, and even political developments.

and most important institution of otaku and djinshi culture, the convention would be among the first to face these issues potential detrimental consequences: Comikes future may change rapidly. Comike was neither the first nor the biggest djinshi fair when it was established; its main purpose was to provide the freest market possible, and that freedom has come at a price. The dream of a Comic Market open to everyone and everything was never realized, as there were too many physical, financial, and legal restrictions. Even today, the Comic Market suffers from a lack of space, a lack of money, and a lack of legal security. Only two-thirds of applicant circles can participate due to constraints, since, as a small independent operator Comikes financial resources are limited and most of the work is done by volunteers.

what iS coMic MaRket?

How can we understand Comikes value and meaning to fan culture? As early as 1998, Iwata concluded that the most important function of Comic Market was being a profoundly unique place (ba): the convention functions as a huge, semiprotected space in which certain liberties have been maintained.37 Comikes history was determined almost completely by technological and market developments, which were driven by the emergence of collective tastes and trends inside and outside its participants communities (Figure 5). At Comic Market, all these developments took place simultaneously in one space, to which there is still no entrance fee, and which, compared to many other similar venues or professional events, remains relatively unrestricted. But can Comic Market be reduced completely to a physical place? It has never really been spatially fixed. If Tokyo Big Site lost its status as the biggest convention center, Comike would not hesitate to move to another location if its community desired it. Though its most important function is still to provide a physical place, Comic Market has also become a symbol of the otaku and djinshi communities. It is not only by a wide margin the biggest djinshi event in Japan (and therefore related to many subcultural and independent media in Japan) (Figure 6), it is also the oldest such event, and the one most famous in the mass media. As the center of attention, with its size and its links to the industry, it is undeniable that Comike possesses the power and the means to influence social, market, and even political developments. In

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figure 5. Cover of an X-rated parody djinshi by Hiroe Rei sold on August 19, 2007, at the seventysecond Comic Market. Hiroe is the artist of the famous action manga Black Lagoon and well-known for his djinshi activities, which includes parody djinshi. Titled Raid-san to asob (Lets play with Rider-san), this book is a fan comic for the adventure-novel game Fate / stay night by Notes / Type-Moon.

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figure 6. The sixty-sixth Comic Market, August 13, 2004. A group of cosplayers as characters from Square-Enixs hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XI at the cosplay area. Although it was very hot and muggy, many cosplayers were wearing extravagant costumes. Photograph by author.

recent years it has not been reluctant to use this power. Whether through conferences on copyright issues or on the establishment of a National djinshi fair liaison group (Zenkoku djinshi sokubaikai renrakukai) in 2000, it has taken on the responsibility of representing and of regulating Japanese djinshi culture. The Comic Market has been without question the most important institution and authority in the djinshi world for more than two decades. While it was crucial to the development of modern djinshi and manga fan culture, we can safely state that it surely will not be the end of either.

Notes
1. Shimizu Isao, Manga no rekishi (History of manga) (Tokyo: Kawade Shob Shinsha, 1999), 4546. 2. Ajima Jun, Manga djinshi etosetora 8298 (Manga djinshi et cetera 8298) (Tokyo: Kubo Shoten, 2004), 1215. Ajima Jun is a pseudonym of Yonezawa Yoshihiro. 3. Iwata Tsuguo, Djnshi baka ichidai: Iaemon ga nokoshita mono (Lifelong a djinshi idiot: What Iaemon left) (Tokyo: Kubo Shoten, 2005), 45.

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4. Tezuka tried with this magazine to find a third way for Japanese comics between childish manga and adult, often socially critical gekiga. For Tezuka and his work, see Susanne Philipps, Tezuka Ozamu: Figuren, Themen, und Erzhlstrukturen im Manga Gesamtwerk (Munich: Iudicum Verlag, 2000), 188. 5. Though djinshi is often translated as fanzine (e.g., Frederik L. Schodt, Dream land Japan: Writings on Modern Manga [Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 1996], 37), late Comic Market president Yonezawa made a clear distinction between manga djinshi and fanzines (Ajima, Manga djinshi, 16). 6. Komikku Maaketto junbikai (Comic Market Planning Committee), Komikku Maaketto 30s fairu (Comic Market 30s file) (Tokyo: Seirinkgeisha, 2005), 2829. 7. Ajima, Manga djinshi, 16. 8. Sharon Kinsella, Adult Manga: Culture and Power in Contemporary Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000), 1045. 9. Iwata, Djinshi baka, 4850. 10. The term yaoi first appeared in 1979 as a sort of gag aniparo but was not associated with strong homophile connotations and meanings or in popular use. This had changed by 1986. Yonezawa Yoshihiro, Ureru manga, kioku ni nokoru manga (Manga that sell and manga that remain in memories) (Tokyo: Media Factory, 2007), 85. 11. Ajima, Manga djinshi, 22. 12. According to an interview with Comic Market Planning Committee members Satomi Naoki and Yasuda Kaoru on January 22, 2007, most female characters in shnen series were mothers or big-sister types. 13. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 32. On the circles side, female artists were always a majority. 14. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 126. 15. Yonezawa held onto these ideas until the very end. Yonezawa, Ureru, 194. 16. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 92, 9496. 17. Iwata, Djnshi baka, 1213. These principles can be found in any Comic Market catalog. 18. Sait Jir, Shnen janpu no jidai (The age of Shnen Jump) (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996), 157. 19. For the meanings of yaoi for fujoshi culture, please refer to the work of Sugiura Yumiko. Otaku joshi kenky, fujoshi shis taikei (Female otaku research, the rotten girls ideology) (Tky: Hara Shob, 2006). 20. Iwata, Djinshi baka, 5456. 21. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 13234. 22. For an analysis and description of the antimanga movement, see Kinsella, Adult Manga, 12661. 23. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 15556. 24. Ibid., 18485. 25. Iwata, Djinshi baka, 6061. 26. The winter Comic Market followed one year later but fluctuated between two and three days length until 2005. The winter event has always been less popular than the summer event. 27. Iwata, Djinshi baka, 6163.

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28. Nomura Research Institute, Otaku shij no kenky (Research on the otaku market) (Tokyo: Ty keizai shinpsha, 2005), 3435. 29. Many famous manga artists were or still are part of the djinshi scene, including Ishinomori Shtar, Takahashi Rumiko, Ozaki Minami, and CLAMP. 30. For a detailed analysis of this topic, see my Magister thesis. Schattenmarkt Djinshi Amateur-Publikationen und die japanische Manga-Industrie (The djinshi shadow market amateur publications and the Japanese manga industry) (Berlin, 2008; not published); Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 28486. 31. Ibid., 294. 32. Iwata, Djinshi baka, 6162. 33. Morikawa Kaichir, Shuto no tanj (Birth of a personapolis) (Tokyo: Gentosha, 2003), 22223. 34. Komikku Maaketto, Komikku Maaketto, 225; Jihihanbai geimu Higurashi . . . eigaka (Self-made game Higurashi . . . becoming a movie), http://www.nikkansports. com/entertainment/cinema/f-et-tp1-20070813-240910.html, accessed August 14, 2007. 35. The exhibitors spaces are divided into different genres. Normally these are general categories such as Shnen Anime or History. For a single title or company to become its own genre shows its huge popularity among djinshi fans. Normally this honor is reserved for extremely popular shnen manga such as Naruto (1999present) or Prince of Tennis (19992008, Tenisu no jisama). 36. Shotakon is an erotic yaoi genre featuring young boys. The term shotakon became widely known in 1981 by the djinshi magazine Fanroad and comes from Shtar complex named after the hero from the manga Tetsujin 28g (195666, Iron-man No. 28). Yonezawa, Ureru, 8485. 37. Iwata, Djin baka, 42.